Thank you for joining us for another episode of SpiceQuest

This month we are celebrating the following holidays:

1. Say Something Nice Day

The first of June is Say Something Nice Day, which seems like a good thing to celebrate. Small things like a compliment or a kind word can add up and make a difference. I remember once when I lived in New York standing on a street corner with probably 50 other people, and I saw this guy wearing a really awesome leather kilt. I told him that I liked it, and he went from typical stone-faced New Yorker to grinning and thanking me. It was a tiny thing, but it made both of our days better. :)

Related Task: Say something nice. If you do it outside of this post, tell us what you did.

2. Doughnut Day

June 7th is the day that you can usually get free doughnuts/donuts from your favorite doughnut shop (at least in the US). My favorite doughnut place in Saint Louis was a place called "Baker's Dozen." They had the best blueberry cake donuts... just amazing. Here is an Illustrated Guide for those who aren't doughnut experts, although I disagree with some of the names there, and the inclusion of churros in that chart seems sort of pushing it. Churros are great, but are they really doughnuts?

June 8th is Global Wellness Day. Sitting at a desk all day, my fingers get a lot of exercise from typing, but that isn't nearly good enough to balance out doughnut day, so I might celebrate with one of these suggestions. Some of the ideas are great, but there are a lot of good options not included there. Getting more sleep and taking walks are great ideas, but really wellness is about anything that we can do to feel better and live healthier, including managing our stress levels, setting boundaries, letting go of anger that is turning us into raging hate monsters... whatever is going to bring us more peace.

Related Task: Tell us something you are trying to do in order to improve your life.

4. Flag Day

Several countries celebrate Flag Day in June. For the US, it is the 14th, but Peru, Denmark, Argentina, Sweden, Estonia, and Romania all celebrate this month as well. My favorite story was about the origin of the flag of Denmark, where a banner is said to have fallen out of the sky, leading to a miraculous victory.

Related Task: Design a flag. It can be for Spiceworks, for your SpiceCorps group, for your company, for your family, for yourself, or, you know, whatever else you can think of. Pictures would be great, but if you can't pull that off, a good description is A-OK.

5. Father's Day

Over 100 countries celebrate Father's Day in June, though not always on the same day. Here in the United States it is on the 16th this year, as it is for the majority of the other countries mentioned.

Related Task: Tell us an awesome thing about your dad. Alternatively, tell us who your favorite fictional father is, and why.

Remember to post proof of your completion of each of the quest challenges in the comments below, so that we can post a nice June SpiceQuest badge for you when the SpiceQuest is over. All entries must be posted by June 30, 2019.

For June 1 I was the recipient of say something nice. I was volunteering at my sons school for an outdoor work bee. The coordinator ask what we want to do, I tell them Dylan wants to weed whack and off he goes. Then he asks "can you run a hedge trimmer?" Well the truth is, I could cut a crooked line with a laser, but no one else was stepping up, so they entrust with their brand new, never before used Stihl hedge trimmer. While I was not that happy with the results, (I am my own worst critic), one of the coordinators came by when I was half done and was gushing about how great the hedges looked and hoped I would be back next year to do them again.

On the topic of donuts, I picked bear claw, but I have never categorized a bear class as a donut, it is a European pastry, properly should be filled with date paste. Perhaps it is different in different parts of the world? If I was picking just what I feel are donuts, then I would have to say "apple fritter" But, must contain real apple and not some lameo apple pie filling and should be gigantic and well outside should be crisp and the inside soft.

The gourmet donut culture is alive and well here in BC with shops trying to out do each other like craft breweries.

I know you didn't say it had to be directly targeted towards anybody specific but I'll take this space to say thanks to some awesome community members.Bweber93 for being badass and putting up with my company IRL.EagleMitchell for giving me the keys to the castle and letting me say "dong" in the chat.Big Green Man for having layers.cmdlette for keeping PowerShell equal opportunity no matter your gender.Justin1250 for .... nothing actually. He's at fault for just about everything I can think of, to be honest. Not even sure why I mentioned him.geekylibrarian for keeping us in check while in the Discord.BiscuitKing for replenishing Earth's rock supply.Casey (Spiceworks) for allowing me to occupy the role of "headache."PaploothePirate for swabbing poop decks with booty or whatever it is she does....Peter (Spiceworks) for reminding me that robots have feelings too.Jimmy T for being a large reason why I'm even here in the first place (direct hate mail to him, thx)dbeato for being the OG meowkingBailey (Spiceworks) for running a prison and winning all the prizes.Joelkostelecky for bacon, guns, bacon, guns, repeat.TrentTHEgent for being one of the few people to actually get me to laugh in the webinar chats.Justin O (Spiceworks) for wearing awesome shirts and letting me world star it up on his show. Mah moist bruthaNotoriousGK for somehow finding me entertaining. I'm glad I'm not the only one laughing at my awful jokes.Last but not least, Robert5205 for reminding me to stay bouyant.

2. Tell us your fav donut

Hurts

3. Tells us something you're doing to improve your life

I try to get out early before getting ready and run/work out. Usually I just skip it though and remind myself that I ran last week that one time so I should feel good about myself and I'm okay to have another cheeseburger and beer.

4. Design a flag

DIMFOREST FLAG BOI

5. Something awesome about dad

There isn't enough time and space here to fully put into words my dads story so I'll just skip to the last page: he was murdered while being an absolute hero. I've done some good things in my life but I will NEVER be half the man he was. If I can scrape by and be a tenth of the man he was, I'll consider that a massive success. Love you, Dad.

Footnote to history: My dad was at Nuremberg. As a young US soldier, his job was to guard the infamous N a z i prisoners and move them to and from the trials. He met all of them and most of the judges as well. One of the most well-known nexus in recent human history and my dad was right smack dab in the middle of it. Amazingly, he never even bothered to mention it until just a few years ago.

My dad passed away recently at age 91. He appeared to me in a dream two days ago. I asked him why he was here. He said, "I just wanted to see you and tell you that everything is going to be all right." I hope he's correct.

Footnote to history: My dad was at Nuremberg. As a young US soldier, his job was to guard the infamous N a z i prisoners and move them to and from the trials. He met all of them and most of the judges as well. One of the most well-known nexus in recent human history and my dad was right smack dab in the middle of it. Amazingly, he never even bothered to mention it until just a few years ago.

My dad passed away recently at age 91. He appeared to me in a dream two days ago. I asked him why he was here. He said, "I just wanted to see you and tell you that everything is going to be all right." I hope he's correct.

That's incredible! How did it get brought up a few years ago? I love stuff like this!

Footnote to history: My dad was at Nuremberg. As a young US soldier, his job was to guard the infamous N a z i prisoners and move them to and from the trials. He met all of them and most of the judges as well. One of the most well-known nexus in recent human history and my dad was right smack dab in the middle of it. Amazingly, he never even bothered to mention it until just a few years ago.

My dad passed away recently at age 91. He appeared to me in a dream two days ago. I asked him why he was here. He said, "I just wanted to see you and tell you that everything is going to be all right." I hope he's correct.

That's incredible! How did it get brought up a few years ago? I love stuff like this!

My GF is ex-Air Force. She started a conversation with him a few Memorial Days ago. He just started telling "war stories." How he got busted back to buck during basic for sneaking into town to the soda shoppe - only to see the platoon sergeant sitting there.

Footnote to history: My dad was at Nuremberg. As a young US soldier, his job was to guard the infamous N a z i prisoners and move them to and from the trials. He met all of them and most of the judges as well. One of the most well-known nexus in recent human history and my dad was right smack dab in the middle of it. Amazingly, he never even bothered to mention it until just a few years ago.

My dad passed away recently at age 91. He appeared to me in a dream two days ago. I asked him why he was here. He said, "I just wanted to see you and tell you that everything is going to be all right." I hope he's correct.

That's incredible! How did it get brought up a few years ago? I love stuff like this!

My GF is ex-Air Force. She started a conversation with him a few Memorial Days ago. He just started telling "war stories." How he got busted back to buck during basic for sneaking into town to the soda shoppe - only to see the platoon sergeant sitting there.

I could probably sit and listen to those kinds of stories all day long. I'm on year 13 and I have plenty of stories myself but I feel like none of them are quite as good as hearing the older generation talk about their time in.

Though... this one is similar and shows how much times have changed:

We have "Blue Force Tracker" systems in many of the trucks nowadays. It's some Linux based deal integrated with GPS and FM and it gives you a realish time overview of the battlefield; where your friendly "blue" troops are, the reported locations of bad guys, IEDs, etc etc... I'm sure MichaelMTallman could tell you more about them than I could - officers love them.

Anyway, we're down at Ft Benning, Georgia doing a class on them. There's maybe 30-40 soldiers in this class and it's pretty top heavy. Lot's of shiny ranks and lil ol' enlisted dimforest smack dab in the middle. The instructor pulls up a map showing all of the troops in Ft Benning and their locations and... what's this? 2 trucks at the local booby bar?

Turns out some soldiers took a couple trucks downtown and left the BFT system online. Later on found out that these guys didn't have a pass to leave base either. I can only imagine how awful the rest of that month was for these guys. The best part was the look on all of these high-ranking dudes' faces in the class when they realized what was going on. If I remember correctly, we had a handful of full-birds in that class, haha. The looks of disappointment and anger were amazing.

1. Say Something Nice DayI think dimforest is really swell. He's my personal Spiceworks hero because he's hilarious and also doesn't take crap from misanthropes.Cyali also has super amazing hair and rocks it! Every time I see her avatar I wish I could go back to the days of my fiery magenta hair.

2. Doughnut DayMy favorite is the powdered jelly-filled donut. They don't exist in my neck of the woods, so I usually settle for an iced jelly bismark with rainbow sprinkles. Keith's Grocery in Adrian, MN makes the best darn donuts I have ever consumed.

3. Global Wellness DayTo improve my life, I'm on the final round of decluttering before I move. It's kind of funny because the house will be 3x the size of my apartment, but a clean slate is more important to me than material things--I can always DIY or buy what I need later. In addition to decluttering efforts, I'm working on eating better and working out more. I started kettle bell workouts months ago using 10lb bells, and now I can do a ton of the routine with 53lb bells.

4. Flag DayMy personal flag would basically just be a black background with >_ in mauve or antique pink.

5. Father's DayI don't know what to say other than my dad raised me right. Being what I can only describe as "queer tomboy", I was never super feminine growing up, but my dad always supported me no matter what I wanted to wear or how I wanted to look. Now instead of army surplus boots and boys' jeans, I wear stilettos or platform combat boots and pretty dresses... but I can still help put a one-ton wheel back on a tractor when I go home to visit.

1. Say Something Nice Day - technically this wasn't in June but since June 1st was a Saturday, I'll leave it the judges to decide whether or not it counts. I can always say something nice again. Anyway, last Friday, our receptionist was obviously having a hectic day so I told her she was doing an awesome job as I was walking by. It didn't really help lighten her load but at least it put a smile on her face.

2. Doughnut Day - favorite non-donut snack: I haven't seen them in years but they used to have these things called "Dunkin' Sticks" in the vending machine where I worked in the '90's. Man! Those things rivaled donut shop donuts in terms of sugar density and overall tastiness. Just a couple of dunks and there was no need to add sugar to your coffee!

3. Global Wellness Day - I broke my arm in January - the ladder slipped off the tree trunk it was leaning against while I was on it taking down Christmas decorations. Anyway, because of that I went to the doctor for the first time in many years and found out I have high blood pressure. I've been doing things to move more and lose weight during my recovery and one of those things is taking the stairs. For example, I park on level 10 of the garage so I'll walk down a floor (or up on the way out) before catching the elevator the rest of the way. I'll add another flight of stairs coming and going this month.

4. Flag Day - Hard to come up with a flag better than the ol' Stars and Stripes...unless it's the Texas Flag.

5. Father's Day - dad was a Marine. Specifically, a Force Recon Marine. He used to tell a story about a mission he and some of the guys in his unit were recruited for to support the infamous Bay of Pigs invasion. During the invasion in April 1961, this group was waiting in a submarine off the coast of Cuba dressed in Cuban military uniforms. Dad was half-Mexican, half-Italian so he looked the part. A lot of the other men in the group were Hispanic and many of them spoke Spanish. Their objective was to take Castro's presidential palace, kill or capture Castro and hold their position until the main invasion force arrived. He said there was never any discussion of extraction. The main invasion force was defeated by the Cuban military within 3 days and, fortunately for me, my father's unit never got the go order for their part of the invasion. Still, it was a pretty awesome story. RIP, dad and Semper Fi.

I said something nice to my wife today, it's our wedding day, so it was about time to say something nice ;-)

2. Doughnut Day

I love doughnuts, I voted for the cake one, because I don't like the ones filled with something glibberish.

3. Global Wellness Day

Be a lot more sportive. I bought a Samsung Gear S3 three weeks ago and I'm trying to take more steps every day.Everything big starts with small steps :-)

4. Flag Day

That is what my flag would look like :-)

5. Father's Day

In germany we allready had Father's day on 30.05.

My father knows everything, we don't need wikipedia or the internet, we are just asking my father. He is reading a lot and is watching a lot of dokumentations.Until now I did not find anything non IT Related that he did not know.

Think this has to be how
nice the Spiceworks crew are, often answering questions to complete new-bro’s
like myself, trying to help out regardless of how mundane the problem is, Often
taking their own time to help out a new user.

2. Doughnut Day

Has to be glazed ring doughnut,
other than that, a nice fresh one straight from the cooker on blackpool front. See
image below.

3. Global Wellness Day

Its something that is
ongoing, around about mid January I had a bad bout of flu, and was bed ridden
for 2 days, this meant that for 2 days I really didn’t feel like smoking so
said to my wife that once this bug was over I was going to try and stop
smoking, so since that day I have yet to light up (yes its been hard) but im
now 5 months clean, and this is from an average of 30 a day.

4. Flag Day

I have 0 artistic skills, but could quite easily
imagine a Jolly roger flag being flown that is in LGBT colours, imagine being
at sea and seeing a jolly roger in said colours flying above the ship would be different
to say least :D

5. Father's Day

I am unfortunate that I lost my dad when I was
9 years old, however, the abiding memory that whilst tinged with sadness also
makes me smile.

Bit of context : My dad was a milkman who
delivered to camp sites during the summer in North Wales so instead of it being
1 pint of this, it was 30-40 crates of Sterra etc…. So wasn’t the ‘ernie’
styled milkman (google benny hill and ernie) But he drove a HGV lorry to move
the milk around (used to go on the rounds during school holidays)

However, when he died as you can imagine it
hit family hard so when we were going through things, and trying to carry on as
normal, we found in the pantry around 5 crates of cartooned milk hidden away
under some old coats , the dates on them suggested they were quite recently
deposited. It was as if he knew his time was coming to end and he wanted to
provide a little something for us after his passing, but stranger thing was the
morning of his death, he told my mom not to get up with him “it’s a cold
morning”, which in the 20 or so years he was on the round, this was the one
morning mother didn’t get up to make his brew before work, he was sadly found
on the milk round after having a massive heart attack, but we all felt that he
knew his time was up, which whilst sad also left us feeling a bit of happiness
that he did what he could after his passing.

My birthday is the 7th and I hate cake but you've just given me a bloody great idea! I'm going to get doughnuts! Also, say something nice day XD. Maybe I could take a user seriously and give them moral support, hugs, flowrers, chocolates for alerting us to a (non-existent) problem and finally a cheery farewell. Come to think of it, I don't think I could manage.

1. Does refraining from slaughtering a bunch of people who deserve it count as doing something nice? Well, just in case, I observed to my wife that she is looking particularly lovely this morning.

2. Apple fritters. Enjoying one right now, along with some scalding-hot coffee. Strike that; I WOULD be enjoying one right now, but the coffee has destroyed my taste buds, so I'm pretty much just imagining I'm enjoying it.

3. Moving to live closer to work. The less chance there is for me to lose my mind to road rage, the better it is for EVERYONE. :P

4.

This flag is an absolute masterpiece of color and design, covered with the most intricate patterns you can possibly imagine. It defies description. Of course, all of this is done in colors that human beings cannot detect with the naked eye, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

5. An awesome thing about my dad: He made me. :D Another awesome thing about him: He personally rebuilt his own dad's old ski boat. The hull was in good shape, but everything else was a mess. My dad gutted it and restored it from bow to stern. It was a fantastic project, which has led to a great many memories on the lake. Favorite fictional dad; Bryan Mills. Do NOT mess with his kid.

A simple act, but I commented on my wife and how beautiful
she looked this morning. She looked at me like I was crazy, since she had just
gotten up, but mission accomplished!

2.Doughnut Day

My favorite doughnut is simple. Vanilla Icing over the top
of a long john, with custard filling. Plain and simple, and oh, so good.

3.Global Wellness Day

I'm trying, as much as I can, to unplug on the weekends. That
means, no phone, no wifi, no servers, no nothing. I am outside almost all
weekend, working on my house and ignoring the cellphone, except for after hours
emergencies.

4.Flag Day

My flag would look something like a jolly roger, but made
out of pizza slices, since I love pizza. It is the one thing I could eat every
day and never get sick of.

5.Father’s Day

One awesome thing about my father is his dedication to
family. Growing up, he worked a mundane boring job in apartment maintenance, so
he spent his days cleaning out apartments, fixing leaks in plubming and heating
issues, and in the winter, shoveling and plowing parking lots and sidewalks at
like 2am. In addition to that, he ran his own side business after work, doing
landscaping for over 10 years. Now he is retired, but continues to keep himself
busy by operazting as an Uber and Lyft driver, often going out at 10pm and not
coming home until 5am the next morning. We may not have had a lot growing up,
but what we had, he worked hard for.

1) I don't think I'm active on here enough to single out individuals but I would like to give a shout out to the entire community for being there when I post my odds-and-ends questions. This is a great tech community and one of the best that I've had the pleasure of being involved with my my (long) time on the internet.

2) Not really a doughnut, per-se, when I was a kid every Memorial Day and Labor day weekend we went to Somersworth, NH, to put flowers on our family tombstones and we always stopped at Pearl's Bakey to get creme filled maple rounds (mmmm). Pearl's is long gone but lucky Harvey's (in Dover) bought their recipes and still makes then to this day almost as good as Pearl's did.

3) I'm trying to be more active. Taking the stairs at work as opposed to the elevator, hiking, and for personal / professional improvement I am working on by bachelor's degree.

4) This is a flag I designed years ago for a wildlife advocacy group (concentrating on apex predators)

The green represents the land, the blue represents the water (oceans, lakes, etc.), and the white in-between represents the purity / balance between the two.

The black represents the death brought in by humans, with the red (strength) and yellow (justice) protecting the land and seas from the death.

The wolf in the middle represents nature's balance, the apex predators.

5) We didn't grow up rich or well off, later in life I learned how much my parents struggled while my sister and I were growing up (like discussing if they could budget in a bag of potato chips for my sister and I). My father worked in grocery store management while my mother was a secretary (well, admin in today's world). Despite their struggling they tried their hardest to make sure my sister and I had a good life. It was common for my father to have to work holidays (including Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc.) back then and we made the best of the situation.

More of a funny thing, when I was younger we had my uncle (my dad's brother) and his family over for a barbecue. Well, the flames got a little out of control (but not badly, fire dept was not called) and I still remember to this day them using my water guns to keep the flames down.

NOTE: There are several questions about whether refraining from doing or saying something not nice counts as saying something nice. And I definitely don't want to discourage some wise self-control. :) I applaud your efforts. But, alas, no... it does not count towards the badge.

Our receptionist makes the best coffee of everyone in our shop, and I tell her everyday how good it is.

2. Doughnut Day

I actually love all varieties of doughnuts, but custard filled is at the top of the list.

3. Global Wellness Day

I'm also winding down the terrible habit of smoking cigarettes. I'm down to just a couple (3 - 4) per day, down from a pack and a half on most days. I'm also recently adding a vitamin to daily routine.

4. Flag Day

Art has never been a thing that I excelled at, so I'll just say that General Christopher Gadsden did a fine job on his own flag design. Well done, General. (Well looky there.....another nice thing.)

5. Father's Day

I've been fortunate to have a lot of strong men in my life to act as role models, and like a lot of the folks above me, they are all US Military Veterans as well. My maternal Grandfather is a WWII Battle of the Bulge anti-aircraft gunner. He'll be 95 this month, and he has some great stories as well.

For something nice, best thing I can think of is planning has started for the SpiceBuddies to get ready for SpiceWorld 2019! I was happy to jump in to get things going last year and happy to do it again this year!

For doughnuts, anything from Stange Doughnuts is good!

For wellness, I've been working to reduce my daily calories to lose some weight, as well as reduce my cholesterol to keep my heart healthy.

I can't think of a flag design, so I'll share one that I'm proud to have been a part of.

My dad retired from the Navy after 20 years and was part of why I served as well.

This flag is an absolute masterpiece of color and design, covered with the most intricate patterns you can possibly imagine. It defies description. Of course, all of this is done in colors that human beings cannot detect with the naked eye, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

1. Say something nice day - Our office manager/scheduler/accounting person also goes out to stock our fridge and break area with drinks and snacks. I will (and others) occasionally get something for the snack area but he does this pretty frequently. I tell him thanks anyway but after reading this, made a point to thank him.

I am a pretty thankful person but I won't leave this one alone though as I already thank him usually so I'll look for other opportunities and try going out of my way on this one. Looking for something else nice to do.

2. Donut Day - I was trying to think of the best donuts (this is the spelling I am using...shorter :)) I have eaten and although I like custard, jelly-filled, and some fritters. I have to say that Sour Cream Donuts are my all-around favorite. I am not a big sugar eater but if I do want a specific donut, I just enjoy the slightly crunchy outside, cool donutty inside and sugary, vanilla icing on the outside and great dipped in coffee. My family would say I like custard and I do (not that white fluffy bavarian cream...blech)---there is just that 'something' I enjoy about those Sour Cream Donuts.

3. Global Wellness Day - Finally coming into some balance in my work. I drive 150 miles to and from work (time on the road takes away from family, keeping up on time, and other things...although good for online books, TTV reading, and talk radio) and have had a hard time with keeping up on time entries for work. Keeps me tired as well when doing family stuff, cooking, wife, kids, new puppy, helping with horse, etc.

We have just implemented a new method for working, using our calendar/schedule and it seems to be working better for me. Which helps me be less stressed at home.

4. Flag Day - I'll be making one soon and thinking about a theme but if anyone has an idea, I'd be glad to give it a shot. Just yesterday I was just putting away some of my old sketches that my oldest had in his room and was reminiscing (I don't do much drawing anymore and especially not much on paper) so feeling in an artistic mood currently.

5. Father's Day - Unfortunately do not have any good stories here....not trying to be dramatic and childhood wasn't real traumatic (sounds like a rap song in the making). Real dad left when I was a year old. Only had a step dad later in life and he's in Florida somewhere, split from my Mom a number of years ago. He tried but he wasn't a kid person and we were too old and not the most cooperative. He did try on occasion but it was what it was.

On a brighter note though, I AM a dad and although I am not perfect, I do what I can.